Thursday 30 July 2015

Saskatoon Jelly

My crusade with the saskatoon berry continues.  Saskatoons are plentiful in Alberta, yet I have no recollection of anyone I know ever making saskatoon jelly.  I swear my mom has made every kind of jelly under the sun, but no saskatoon jelly.  I remember my Auntie Jean making saskatoon-rhubarb jam, but that's about it.....

So off to Google I went, trying to find a recipe.  The first hit was Kraft Canada, a very dependable and easy-recipe website.  How could this fail??  Well, it didn't.  It is amazing.  It's like saskatoon pie when I spread it on toast...with none of the seeds.  Where has this been all my life?????

Here's a link to the recipe.  I followed it exactly, and have reproduced it here:

3 and 1/2 cups prepared juice (About 3 litres of berries)
1/2 cup lemon juice
7 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 pouches Certo liquid pectin

-Wash and thoroughly crush about 3 quarts (3 L) ripe Saskatoon berries. (I used 4 litres, and used a potato masher to crush while heating. )




-Heat gently until juice starts to flow; simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Place in jelly cloth or bag and squeeze out juice.



-Measure 3 1/2 cups (800 mL) into a large saucepan. Add lemon juice.
-Add sugar to juice and mix well.



-Place over high heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
-Immediately stir in pectin.
-Return to a full rolling boil and boil hard 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
-Skim foam if necessary.
-Pour quickly into warm sterilized jars filling up to 1/4 inch (0.5 cm) from rim.
-Seal while hot with sterilized 2-piece lids with new centres.



MY NOTES:

Note that I required 4 litres of berries to get that much juice, but I'm sure it all depends on how juicy your saskatoons are.

Also, I realize that is an OBSCENE amount of sugar.  One thing I've learned about canning/preserving though, is don't mess with the ratios.  I'm not a scientist and I wanted my jelly to gel.  So I just went with it.  Just don't think about it.  I'm sure commercially prepared jellies have just as much.

This made 8, one cup jars of jelly for me.  The other jars in the background are Nanking Cherry Jelly.  I was on a jelly making roll.

Enjoy!



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